A Milestone

THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951

Member American Association of English--Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial

► ssociatiou.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 48235 Mich.,

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SIDNEY SHMARAK

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Advertising Manager

Business Manager

Editor and Publisher

CHARLOTTE HYAMS

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the thirtieth day of Kislev. 5725, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:

Pentateuchal portions, Gen. 41:1-44:17, Num. 7:42-47, Num. 28:9-15; Prophetical
portion: Zechariah 2:14-4:7.

Licht benshen Friday. Dec. 4, 4:43 p.m.

Page

VOI.. XI.VI, No. 15

4

December 4, 1964

Wiezmann Institute: Its Dynamic Leader

Closely linked with the current celebra-
tion of the 20th anniversary of the Weizmann
Institute of Science at Rehovoth, Israel, are
the encomia corning from all parts of the
globe as greetings to Meyer W. Weisgal, the
master mind of the institute, who has reached
the age of 70. The two—Weizmann Institute
and Weisgal—have become inseparable as a
result of the great accomplishments of the
scientific institute that are directly traceable
to Mr. Weisgal's guiding genius, and they
must be treated together in making note of
the important anniversaries.
The impressive list of members of the
international committee that is honoring both
the Weizmann Institute and Mr. Weisgal at-
tests to the worldwide recognition that has
been given to the research institution in
Israel and to appreciation of the services
that have been rendered to it by the chair-
man of its executive council.
CommencinT1Vith his acceptance of Dr.
(Maim Weizmann's invitation in 1940 to act
as his personal secretary, Mr. Weisgal has
)c-en the moving spirit in the efforts for the
expansion of the Weizmann Institute which
•onimenced, in 1944, with the laying of the
cornerstone for the first building. It was in
year of great tragedies for Jewry. yet Weiz-
mann's idea of creating cultural values in
'efiance of physical clangers, thereby emphas-
Iiing the positive values of the Zionist move-
uent, prevailed.

*

*

*

The catalogue of projects currently in the
uro•ess of fulfillment at the Weizmann Insti-
ute attests to the glory of the great in-
stitution.
Departments operating at the Institute
under the direction of very distinguished
.:cientists are dedicated to studies in applied

mathematics, biochemistry, biodynamics, bio-
physics, chemical immunology, biological ul-
trastructure, polymer research, X-ray crys-
tallography, plant genetics, chemical physics,
organic chemistry, photochemistry and spect-
roscopy, isotope research, genetics, nuclear
physics, electronics, infrared spectroscopy.
There aren't very many universities, with
vastly greater resources, that are as well
prepared to undertake research in so many
fields of activity. It was the vision of Meyer
Weisgal that assured the expansion of the
Institute into so many fields of scientific
endeavor.

The fact that nearly 500 world famous
scientists, including an impressive group of
Nobel Prize winners, from 16 countries, have
enrolled in the international committee to
honor both the Weizmann Institute and Mr.
Weisgal are indications of the interest that
Mr. Weisgal has inspired in this great re-
search efforts in Israel among the world's
notables.
For 20 years. the annual Weizmann Insti-
tute dinners in New York reflected that
interest. The leading men and women in
American Jewry were among the partici-
pants. and this year's gathering on Dec. 9, in
New York. already has an assured response
from nearly 2,000 from all parts of the coun-
try. who have become dedicated to the work
of the Rehovoth Institute and who are ad-
mirers of Mr. Weisgal's work.
We join in greeting the Weizmann Insti-
tute and its dynamic executive chairman.
Mr. Weisgal has assured for himself an ineras-
able place in Zionist and Israeli histories, and
the honors being accorded him are well
earned.

Hoary Ghost Laid to Rest at Vatican

It stands to reason that there will be a
of watchful waiting, until 1966, when
the third Vatican Ecumenical Council will
take final action on the schema relating to
the "Jewish question," before there can be
final judgment on the issue of the deicide
charge and its elimination f r o m church

Period

dogma.

Meanwhile there is cause for apprecia-
tion of what had been accomplished in Rome
because the diehard antagonists of Israel and
the Arab propagandists had failed to prevent
action on the basic proposals made by Cardi-
nal Bea. The overwhelming favorable vote on
a declaration that absolves Jewry from guilt
retroactively indicated that there is a liberal
tendency in the church and that there no
longer can be any deviation from it.
There were many heartening develop-
ments as a result of the period of watchful
waiting over Ecumenical Council action in
Rome. Numerous other religious groups de-
clared themselves in opposition to anti-Semi-
s.rn and the charge of deicide was rejected
forcefully by many denominations.

*

*

*

The very charge of deicide has been
an indictment of the groups that have sup-
ported it in any fashion whatever. As the
series of articles based on Prof. Solomon
Zeitlin's "Who Crucified Jesus?" indicate,
there never was cause for such a charge
against,Jewry, and the guilt for nineteen cen-
tnries of persecutions of Jews mainly because
of the deicide charge lies upon the church.
What was involved, therefore, was not the
absolution of Jews but a strong apology to
generations of sufferers from the Christian
libel and their descendants for the resort to
-;uch a charge as a punishment to Jews for
having refused to acknowledge deity for a
fellow Jew.

Dr. Zeitlin's analysis of the events that
preceded the crucifixion and the act itself
that was perpetrated by the Romans. repre-
sents a renewed invitation to scholars and
laymen alike to resort to well-reasoned ap-
proaches to the issue involving Christian-
Jewish relations. based on historic facts.
History has been distorted, and Jews have
been the scapegoats in the centuries-old libel
involving god-killing. Is the new schema a
complete repudiation of the old libel? In a
sense it does reject the past versions. Unlike
one of the attempts to modify the proposi-
tion that was advocated by Cardinal Bea, in
an effort to inject i n t o it a proselytizing
clause, the new text is more positive. It af-
firms a principle and adheres to it.

The publicized schema was strongly sup-
ported by the American prelates at the Ecu-
menical Council. It is to the credit of the lib-
eral element from this country and from
other lands of freedom that bigotry thus has
received a severe blow and that righteous-
ness triumphed.
In a sense the Catholics' action is a tri-
bute to Americanism. The spirit of fair play,
of truth and justice, merged in triumph from
the deliberations. The attempts to inject
medieval thinking failed. Efforts to per-
petuate an old bogy and to revive the anti-
semitic ghost did not succeed. It was the
American spirit that was brought to Rome
by the cardinals from this country that con-
tributed greatly towards the act of fairness
towards Jewry.
For such good acts we are grateful, and
for the determined will of our fellow-citizens
of the Catholic faith who took with them to

the Vatican the desire to assure justice for all
faiths we•utter a prayer of thanks;

Evaluative Study of American
Jewry Contains Hopeful .Notes

A most interesting and very important evaluative study of Ameri-
can Jewry and its numerous organizational and cultural functions is
presented in the newest Jewish Publication Society volume, "The
American Jew: A Reappraisal."
Compiled and edited by one of Amer-
ica's most distinguished analysts and stu-
dents of American Jewish affairs, Dr. Oscar
I. Janowsky, this study contains essays by
19 scholars who have reviewed demographic,
economic, inter-group, religious. educational,
health and welfare, Zionist, overseas aid and
several ideological aspects of Jewish life
in this country.
The editor-compiler. in addition, to the
.
preface. is the author of the study relating
to education — its achievements. problems
and needs—and a summary of the American
Jewish community's image.
Edwin Wolf 2nd and Judah J. Shapiro
wrote the conclusions summarizing leader-
ship and cultural functions.
Other authors include Dr. Jacob Racier
Marcus. who describes the background to
American Jewry's history; C. Bezalel Sher-
Janowsky man. Nathan Reich. Dr. Milton R. Konvitz,
Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, Eisig Silberschlag, Hasye Cooperman, Marie
Syrkin, Alfred Werner. Judith K. Eisenstein, Charles S. Levy, Joseph J.
Schwartz. Beatrice I. Vulcan, Judd L. Teller. Abraham J. Duker and

Harold Weisberg.

An indication that the major interest is in cultural values be-
comes apparent by the major essays devoted to reviews of the
educational aspects and needs of U.S. Jewry. The shortcomings are
indicated, yet there is an expression of hope and faith in a better
future in efforts to improve and expand the efforts in education,
in adult studies, in art, music and Hebrew letters. Even insofar
as Yiddish is concerned, Cooperman is not too pessimistic and he
emphasizes that "Yiddish is indispensable for the study of recent
Jewish history."
In his review of the status and decline of Zionism, Teller re-
iterates a criticism of the Zionist Organization of America uttered by
the late Chaim Arlosoroff in 1929, in which 'LOA was called "mediocre,
conventional . . . adverse to the intellectualism that made Zionism a
force in Jewish history." All Zionists will today be compelled to accept
this as a criticism of all aspects of Zionism and perhaps also of all
elements in Jewry in which there has been a visible intellectual decline.
But Teller has partial solutions:
"Zionism might recover its relevance to Israel by re - establishing
its relevance to American Jewry. . . . What American Jewry requires,
both for its own good and for its relations with Israel, is a coordination
of its functions, concerns and interests. This does not mean the type
of operational centralization which Zionist leaders propose. It means
synthesis." And he otmcludes by asserting that "'there is an inescapable
co-relationship between the condition of the world Zioni.4t movement
and the pathology of its parts."

Edwin Wolf, in his criticism of current leadership, charges
that the American Jewish community "is intellectually passive."
Be declares, nevertheless, that "a vast reservoir of potentiality

exists in the new generation which is seeking the kind of leader-
ship which its intelligence deserves. A new model 'audible is
needed. The men to make the new model must be found."
There is a measure of hope in Janowsky's concluding comment on
the community's image. He declares:
"It would be idle to attempt to forecast the future that American
Jewry will fashion in forthcoming generations. But one may venture
the conclusion that the vitality and dynamism which enabled Jews to
master destructive forces in the past are far from spent. The colorful
parade of Jewish organizational life, with its bustle, its slogans, its
rival claims and touted accomplishments, is not a procession of ghosts
of the past. It is part of the unending march of the centuries. Frus-
tration there is aplenty, but despair is unwarranted. American Jewry
is not .disintegrating. It is in the process of becoming."

